Tree Syrups

Every spring I drill a small hole in a tree and it gives me something sweet. That still strikes me as close to magic, and the more I learn about it the better it gets. I run maple now — buckets, a turkey fryer, and too many late nights — and next season I'm building a real sugar shack. But maple is only the beginning: birch, black walnut, sycamore, boxelder and a handful of others all run sweet, each with its own season and its own flavor. This is all of it — the history, the science, the tapping, the boil, and the trees themselves.